374 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



may employ your spare team, and leisure 

 hours in gatJierin" (he rotted and half rotted 

 leaves of hard wood for manure, including the 

 mould by the decomposition of the leaves, — 

 These substances, we are told, and do not doubt 

 H, will make good manure for potatoes, and if 

 you have not finished planting them it may be 

 well to put some in your hills. But it would 

 probably be quite as well to mix them with 

 other ingredients in a compost heap, or place 

 them in a proper situation to receive and im- 

 bibe the stale of a stable, form a bed for your 

 cattle to sleep on, or let your hogs take them 

 into their custody. 



Lime will be found an useful ingredient in 

 your composts, and perhaps there is, in com- 

 mon cases no better way of applying it to land 

 than by previously mixing it with manure. — 

 .fudge Peters, of Pennsylvania, however, says, 

 " Mix no AoHime with your muck, dung, or 

 compost heap, before fermentation has ceased, 

 or sufficiently advanced ; as it injures mode- 

 rate fermentation, and often consumes the muck. 

 Instances of even conflagration of strawy muck 

 by hot lime to a great extent can be given.*" 

 You should not mix hot lime alone with any 

 substance intended for manure, which fire can 

 injure or consume. 



Sir John Sinclair says, " it has been found 

 that an excellent compost can be prepared, 

 by collecting all sorts of weeds, as thistles, 

 docks, nettles, fern, &c. before Ihey have form- 

 ed seed, and laying them up with alternate lay- 

 ers of rich earth. A great heat is soon raised, 

 and by turning the heap over, the next spring 

 l!ie whole will be resolved into a soft pulpy 

 mass, the efTects of which on (he soil are in no 

 degree inferior to dung. Thus a great nui- 

 sance may be converted into a valuable manure." 



We have, herelofore, published directions 

 and recommendations relative to employing 

 hogs in making composts, &c.t We will, how- 

 ever, copy the following from the " Farmer's 

 Manual" by Mr. Butler, which contains direc- 

 tions, concise, plain, and particular enough for 

 practical purposes. 



" Let your hogs be enclosed in an open pen, 

 near to, or in one part of j'our barn yard ; — 

 throw into this the scrapings of your barns, to- 

 gether wilh every vegetable substance Ihil 

 will putrcly and rot through the summer ; — 

 plough up and cart occasionally, such earth asl 

 can lie collected from 3'our ditches, or old 

 sward balk ; your hogs will root and mix them 

 together, and thus with a little attention, you 

 may obtain 20 or 30 loads of the best manure, 

 or much more if your hogs are numerous." If 

 you employ hogs in this way you may, per- 

 haps, save yourself the trouble of making com- 

 post beds, besides enjoying the satisfaction of 

 making those lazy animals work for a liveli- 

 hood. You will be careful, however, to supply 

 them with a comfortable apartment, well fur- 

 nished with straw to lodge iu. This straw you 

 will clear out frequently to be mixed with oth- 

 er matters m the manure yard, and a fresh sup- 

 ply should be granted. You will also please to 

 recollect what was slated by " A Farmer" in 



* " Notices to a Young Farmer," published in " Me- 

 moirs of the Philadelphia Society for promoting Agri- 

 tulture," vol. iv. page 25. 



t See New England Farmer, vol. i. page 282. Vol. 

 ii. page 178. 



our first volume, page 318, relative to feeding 

 hogs which are put upon the limits, but allow- 

 ed the liberty' of the yard, with green food ; — 

 and you will not forget that swamp-brakes are 

 recommended as a useful article of diet for 

 swine thus situated. 



SAXONT SHEEP. The attention of our readers is re- 

 quested to the notice of (he sale of Saxony sheep, 

 which we have published in the advertising part of 

 this day's paper. This kind of sheep has long been fa- 

 mous in Europe, and its value we are happy to per- 

 ceive, is beginning to be properly appreciated in the 

 United States. We do not knowany method by which 

 the importers could have conferred a greater benefit on 

 the farmer, the manufacturer, and the community ia 

 general than by the introduction of this race of ani- 

 mals, which, are considered, hy the best qualified judg- 

 es, as standing at the head of their species. 

 Mr. John Lawrence, an Englisli writer whose acknow- 

 ledged reputation as a practical, as well as scientific 

 farmer, has placed him iu the first rank of British 

 agriculturists, gives the following observations on this 

 breed of sheep. 



" The government of Saxony received front Spain, 

 in 1765, one hundred rams, and two hundred ewes, of 

 the best blood. During a few years, the improvement 

 of the Spanish cross was opposed by the common pre- 

 judices of the farmers, but they afterwards became so 

 convinced of its utility and importance, and were so 

 desirous of becoming purchasers that the electoral 

 flocks were insufficient to supply the demand, on which 

 account, another importation of the same number with 

 the first, was made from Spain, in 1778, and part of the 

 flock distributed at prime cost. It was found by com- 

 parison that the wool of the first importation had, in no 

 respect degenerated. But Lord Somerville has pro- 

 duced the best proof of the undeniable excellence of 

 the Saxo-Spanish wool, by stating that 200 bags of it 

 were imported into this country in ITJOS, and sold at 

 the prime price of native Spanish wool, the cloth it 

 ])roduced bearing an equal character. The manufac- 

 lurers of\fine clulk in Saxony, finding in their own coun- 

 try, both quantity and quality of wool equal to Ihtir de- 

 mand, hare long siiice ceased to ini}Jorl from Spain, and 

 have nothing farther to dread on the score of disappoini- 

 nient in their commerce. I'arther the .Saxons even 

 grow a surplus of fine wool for exportation, equal in 

 quantity to their home consumption. Saxony main- 

 tahis 1,(500,000 sheep, of which 90,000 are fine-woo!ed, 

 including thorough bred and crossed." 



Ilees' Encyclopedi.i observes that "Saxony is the on- 

 ly country wiiich has yet cultivated the Merinos so ex- 

 tensively, as to come in competition with Spain in the 

 exportation of fine wool. During the last fifteen years 

 a very considerable quantity of fine wool has been im- 

 ported from Saxony into England, and llie price of the 

 best sort is greater than that of the finest Spanish wool, 

 a sufficient proof of tlie estimation in which it is field 

 by the manufacturers. It is better suited for the finest 

 lierscymeres, and the more delicate articles of the woolen 

 trade, as it /an be spun to a greater length than any 

 other kind of carded wool grou-7i in Europe.^'' 



We can perceive no impediment, moral or physical, 

 to raising as fine sheep, and as many in proportion to 

 the population in our Northern and Middle States as 

 are or can be raised in Saxony. Our soil and climate 

 is, probably, as favorable to their growth and incnase 

 as that of Saxony, or any other part of the habitable 

 globe. Dresden the capital of Saxony is situated near- 

 ly 500 miles farther north than Boston, the metropolis of 

 New England. The mean temperature, however, of 

 the climates of the two countries (owing to causes, 

 which we have not at present leisure or room to ex- 

 plain) is probably about the same. Wool of an excellent 

 quality ought to be, and we have no doubt, at no very 

 distant date will be the great staple commodity of New 

 England. Farmers, more especially, who live at a con- 



siderable distance from our sea ports will find their ac- 

 count in sending wool to market instead of articles of 

 less value in proportion to the expense of transport. 



A verj important principle is established, or at least 

 rendered very probable by the facts mentioned above, 

 viz. Tke Merino breed of sheep does not degenerate, if 

 properly managed, in consequence of being transferred 

 from Spain to other countries. On the contrary w8 

 have adduced facta which corroborate the opinions 

 of Robert R. Livingston, L. L. D. &;c. &c. who in his 

 excellent " Essay on Sheep," says, 



" For my own part, I believe that the change in the 

 Merino sheep brought into any northern country, pro- 

 vided they are plentifully fed, will be for the belter, 

 and particularly into this state, [New-York] where the 

 pastures are good, the air and waters pure, the winters 

 cold, and the summer range furnished with shade. I 

 should have presumed this in reasoning a priori, and I 

 have found my theory confirmed by actual experiment." 



We cannot prevail upon ourselves to relinquish thit 

 subject without giving another quotation from the 

 Treatise of Mr. Lawrence above mentioned. 



" Spauish sheep have succeeded and improved in 

 carcase, the wool retaining its genuine fine quality and 

 full quantity, without the smallest symptom of dttoio- 

 ration, in almost every country upon the continent of 

 Europe, even those of the most unfavorable soil and 

 climate, at the Cape of Good Hope and Botany Bay, 

 through a long course of years ; in fcaxony upwards of 

 fifty, in Sweden more than fourscore. The fine cloths 

 made from such naturalized wool have given general 

 satisfaction, with the exception of those who appeared 

 to have an interest iu being dissatisfied. Patterns of 

 superfiae cloth made from his Majesty's and Lord 

 Somerville's home-grown Spanish wools are now be- 

 fore me which I am assured by individuals of the trade, 

 who work up the cloth, are fair merchantable samples, 

 no wise defective in regard to the wool, but if at all, 

 in the manufacture only. That cloth of such home- 

 grown Spanish wool, when fairly manufactured, hat 

 ever been rated equal in quality with the general run 

 of superfine cloths. That thS assertion must be 

 groundless, of superfine cloths and kerseymeres beij 

 manufactured of .Spanish wool only, since it is wefi 

 known, that the quantities annually imported have 

 been totally inadequate to such purpose. That, as 

 English wools, in their unimproved state, necessarily 

 go into the composition of fine cloths, and as iu strong 

 probabihty, much superfine cloths have been constant- 

 ly on sale, which never contained any Spanish wool at 

 all ; there is the stronger plea and encouragement for 

 the improvement of the said English wools. That 

 the samples of home-grown Spanish wools, whatever 

 may be their intrinsic merit, have at least so much de- 

 ception, that the dealers are frequently at a loss to dis- 

 tinguish them from the imported Spanish, and have 

 sometimes been known to prefer the former. That the 

 wool-buyers acknowledge this equality by thenrprly 

 equal prices they now give, and also the reality oi the 

 improvement from the Spanish cross, hy the great ad- 

 vance of price they have allowed on improved native 

 wools. These wools also are nearly or altogether 

 doubled in quantity, by virtue of that cross. That no 

 loss in carcase, or mutton per acre, is a consequence of 

 the Spanish cross, because of the superior number of a 

 smaller breed, ■•.hich the same acre will feed. Thai 

 the Spanish mutton is equal to any in the world, and 

 the species small boned, and very apt to take on fat. — 

 That neither better care nor better keep is requiied by 

 the Spanish sheep, than the English, but that one as 

 well as the other requires more of both than (hey gen- 

 erally have. That the improved species is, in all re- 

 spects equally well calculated for the use and profit of 

 the tenant, as of the landlord." 



TO coRRESPONnENTS. The communication from till 1 

 Hon. Mr. Fiske, (the first article in this day's papenii 

 is very acceptable to us, and must prove very valuabia 

 to the public. We think that gentleman has estabB 

 Hshed the reputation of the breed of swine, which hfl 

 has made such patriotic and successful efforts to intro- 

 duce, on a basis o( facts -which cannot easily be shaken. 



